Turbela
Sector capital of the Vigilius sector and a hive world. Lying near the center of the Vigilius sector it holds an important location as a communications and transportation center. Holding a heavy Imperial and Mechanicus presence it is the most heavily fortified planet in the sector. Orbital charasteristics Satellites Turbela hosts four moons in total, each of them around 600 km in diameter. Some time before the coming of the Imperium, Turbela started using them as penal colonies, building dome cities to house criminals, political prisoners, and other undesireables. In the millennia since their founding and creation, the cities have changed from essentially prisons, to outer colonies of Turbela. With the coming of the Imperium and the discovery of the Vaults, the Mechanicus built numerous planetary defenses across the moons as well. Turbela Alpha Turbela Beta Turbela Gamma Turbela Delta History Pre-Imperium Settled during the Dark Age of Technology, nearly 200 hive cities are scattered through the world in clusters of ten, boasting a total population of around 90 billion though the loss of trade for food during the Age of Strife led to a sharp drop in population. The vast areas of land between the clusters are thought to have been originally intended for farmland, but soon became a waste due to the extreme amount of pollution put out by the hive cities. Before the coming of the Emperor, these hive cities were ruled by priest kings who are thought by the modern Imperial scholars to have been psykers of some sort. In the decades leading up to the arrival of the Great Crusade, the priests began having visions of great armies being led by a magnificent golden god. Coming of the Imperium When the expeditionary fleets arrived, they were greeted by the Priest Kings of Turbela who inquired of them if they knew of this golden god. After the expeditionary fleet leaders showed them various pict caps and remembrancer paintings of the Emperor, the priest-kings became convinced that the Emperor was the god they had had visions of and petitioned for entry. The expeditionary fleets, eager to add another world to the growing Imperium offered not only entry, but trade with agri-worlds to help to sustain the massive population on world and allow it to grow once more. Their only condition was that the planet adopt the secular Imperial Truth and abandon their god worship. To the priest-kings it would mean losing one of their most effective ways of controlling the populace to some, and outright blasphemy for others. When they voiced concerns however the expeditionary fleet merely pointed out that they could easily be replaced and that the most of the population called for joining the Imperium. Faced with this threat, the priest-kings met in secret and agreed to bide their time for when the Imperium would be more open for religion before publicly agreeing to the terms offered by the Imperium. When the Imperium and Mechanicus examined the world more closely, they found something far more valuable than a source of manpower. Scattered across the surface of the planet, but mostly congregated near hive cities, were large building shaped like geometric objects - such as pyramids and cubes. Upon examining them, the Mechanicus found to their delight that they were storage depots that had been sealed during the Dark Age of Technology. Many had already been plundered and opening the remaining ones proved difficult. The first one, broken into by forcing the doors, activated an anti-matter bomb trap that not only obliterated the building, but vaporized everything within a radius of twelve kilometers. The second one however, in which they drilled through the walls merely activated a complex and deadly security system that took over a year to deactivate. What they found inside however was more than worth; while having been primarily some kind of food and seed depot, there were still remains of archaotech relatively intact. After the discovery however, the arch-magos in charge of the investigation declared that, in order to avoid risking destroying the sacred treasures within, they would only open further vaults the way they were meant to be opened. Given how the opening mechanisms themselves were complex pieces of archaotech, this meant it would likely take centuries or even longer. In order to protect their discoveries, the Mechanicus built numerous planetary defense weapons across the planet and even on the planet's four moons. Even by the 41st millennium many of the vaults remain unopened, each one's opening being the result of centuries of work. After the Volhar tech heresy, it goes even slower as the risk of corrupted machines becomes apparent. Horus Heresy During the Horus Heresy, the Vigilius sector would side with the Imperium, but provide no significant support. On Turbela, word of the Heresy had sent the Mechanicus into a flurry of fortifying and preparing, lest the traitor forces try to come and claim the relics still entombed. Thus, on Turbela, the whole Heresy was spent preparing for battles that never came. Their only real contribution to the Imperium during the Heresy was their offer of fuel and new crew members to Imperial Naval vessels that passed through. One of these ships would bring with it an item that would change the course of Turbela's future. A copy of the Lectitio Divinitatus, possibly one of the original copies, passed from the ship's captain to one of the former priest-kings. While merely a curiosity to the ship captain, to the priest-kings of Turbela it served as proof that their faith had been correct. Still wary of enforcement of the Imperial Truth, the priest-kings began to produce copies and distribute them. At first, only in secret and to select people such as nobles, then as the Heresy dragged on to the lower levels of the Hives. Within three generations at the end of the Horus Heresy, over 80 percent of the hives belonged to the 'Church of the Sacred Word' as it was called, led by the newly emergent priest-kings. Age of the Imperium After the Heresy had ended, the cult continued to exist on Turbela at first seen as little more than some strange harmless cult. Over time, as worship of the Emperor spread, both through the sector and the rest of the Imperium, Turbela's rulers were all too proud of their having adopted the worship of the God Emperor first, drawing no small amount of ire from other planets in their system. Government The government of Turbela is a form of Theocratic Autocracy, with each hive being under the absolute control of a priest-king. Despite the male connotations of the title, priest-kings can be female, with the title generally being passed down to the most powerful relative of the previous priest-king, either most powerful politically or in terms of faith. Council of the Holy Kings is the ruling body of the world, a congress of the priest-kings of each hive from among the priest-kings, one is elected to be the planetary governor who has little more power other than overseeing the Imperial Tithe. Each hive is a nation unto itself, each following the Imperial Cult in what manner seems best to them, and each raising their own armies and even engaging in small wars with each other. These wars are not uncommon, often started over variations in doctrine, or in slights between priest-kings. Unbeknownst to the priest-kings, these wars are subtly encouraged by the Administratum and Astra Militarum, as they serve as excellent training and recruitment for Astra Militarum regiments. Tithe As a hive world, Turbela consumes immense amounts of resources and so is expected to produce an enormous tithe. With its large population, Turbela is expected to raise at least a dozen regiments for every tithe. Soldiers for this tithe are usually drawn from the guard of the hive cities that have been at war with each other or been enacting purges of the underhives as those soldiers already possess combat experience. Regiments drawn from Turbela form the bulk of line guardsmen along with the other hive world regiments, making up for low combat suitability with sheer bulk. The other part of the tithe paid by Turbela is in the form of refined chemicals, ranging from combat drugs, to important cleaning fluids for plasma reactors. Locations Vaults of the Dark Age Scattered across the surface of Turbela lie ancient storage depots built and locked during the Dark Age of Technology. Made out of adamantium lined high-grade ceramite making near indestructible. The only weak point in the structure being the vault doors, made out of some unknown metal that is almost completely impervious to harm. However the doors were intended to be opened and should the right command codes be given to the access port next the door they slide open easily. Failing that, the doors themselves can be forced open as the rollers and engines keeping the doors closed lack the durability of the doors themselves. However, built into each of the depots are various fail safes and traps designed to activate in case the vaults are breached, the doors forced, or the vault is opened in any way other than using the opening codes on the doors. The defenses of the vaults range from security systems consisting of sophisticated sentry turret systems, to anti-matter bombs. In order to prevent the activation of the defenses and avoid the risk of damaging the contents of the vaults, the first Mechanicus Arch-Magos put in charge of searching the depots declared that only by using the correct opening codes will they open the vault doors. These command codes can range from billions to tens of trillions of lines of code long or even more. The storage depots are all built in various geometrical shapes that the Mechanicus has determined are used to distinguish the type of material or technology stored within as well as the types of security and fail safes. These shapes and classifications are: # Alpha-class - Cylindrical in shape, the Alpha-''class depots were used to store pre-Age of Strife farming equipment as well as useful produce seeds. Due to possessing the lightest security of all the depots as well as being the most numerous, many were broken into and looted before the Imperium came. Many of those that remained have been opened by the Mechanicus, this was expedited when they discovered that each depot had a 'sister' depot with which it shared 42% of its codes. 147 ''Alpha-class depots have been found, 42 were broken into before the Imperium came. Since then the Mechanicus had managed to open 68 more. # Beta-class '- Quadrilateral pyramids in shape, the ''Beta-class depots have been discovered to hold ancient construction equipment. Unlike all the other vaults the items stored within serve as the bunkers security, repair and reinforcing breaches faster than they can be made. While the construction equipment recovered is extraordinarily advanced, the ability to give new build orders to them or operate them in general has long been lost. After centuries of study the Mechanicus discovered they were meant to be operated by the Men of Iron, Humanities sentient machines whose rebellion started the Age of Strife. After that discovery, all further investigation and study of the construction machines was forbidden. Of the 98 vaults found 29 have been opened. # ''Gamma/Delta''-class''' - Shaped as cubes, Gamma/Delta-class depots look identical on the exterior by have different interiors. The Gamma-class depots were designed to act as bunkers, but were never used and instead laid sealed for millennia. The Delta-class vaults were used to store information on vast cogitator arrays. To the Mechanicus's dismay, the millennia have not been kind to them, the majority of the information stored on them has been either corrupted, or seemingly subjected to deliberate sabotage. Most of what remains seems to have been the history of the local colonies. Extremely rarely however, they will find or recover parts of an STC or even a complete one. For this reason the Mechanicus searches obsessively for these depots. Of the 17 found 5 have been opened. # '''Epsilon-class '- shaped like a pentagon, only 3 ''Epsilon-class depots have been found. The defense measures of these vaults appear to be anti-matter bombs, having had one go off when one of the first Mechanicus teams breached the wall. It is unknown what lies within these depots as neither of the two known remaining depots have been opened, the codes required to open them several orders of magnitude higher that any of the other vaults. Quotes Category:Vigilius sector Category:Hive Worlds Category:Worlds Category:Ultima Segmentum Category:Imperium